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Home » Children »

Testimony: Z.R.M.M.

 

Name: Z.R.M.M.
Age: 15
Date: 2 February 2017
Location: Beituniya, West Bank
Accusation: Throwing stones

On 2 February 2017, a 15-year-old minor from Beituniya was arrested by Israeli soldiers at 10:00 a.m. and accused of throwing stones. He reports ill treatment and being denied his basic legal rights under Israeli military law. He reports being sentenced to 3 months in prison and fined NIS 3,000.

Israeli soldiers arrested me on the main road at around 10:00 a.m. My friend and I were going on a walk when a military jeep pulled over and four soldiers stepped out and started to beat us without justification. The soldiers forced me into the back of the jeep and made me sit on the metal floor between soldiers’ legs. I was beaten and verbally abused inside the jeep too. The soldiers called me "a fucking brother of a whore".
 
The jeep drove for a few minutes to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem, where I was taken out of the jeep and I sat on the ground for about an hour. The soldiers asked me to keep my head down between my legs. The weather was cold.
 
About an hour later I was taken to Atarot police station, in East Jerusalem. As soon as I arrived I asked to use the toilet and the soldiers allowed me but I was not given any food or drink. At around 8:00 p.m. I was taken for interrogation.
 
There was a camera and a tape recorder in the room. An interrogator, who introduced himself as "Haddad", entered the room and immediately started to shout at me in order to scare me. He turned the lights off a number of times and asked me about throwing stones. I denied the accusation.
 
About 15 minutes later he left the room and another interrogator asked me the same questions. He accused me of throwing stones at soldiers and of taking part in protests. Then he asked me for names of boys who take part in protests but I did not respond. I denied the accusations and told him I did not take part in protests.
 
The interrogators did not inform me of any rights. Then one of them showed me a document in Hebrew and asked me to sign it but I refused to sign and asked him to show me the document in Arabic. At this point he got upset and tried to hit me then he kicked me out of the room and told a soldier to take my photograph and fingerprints. After they did so I was then taken to another room.
 
Then I was taken back to Ofer prison where we arrived at around 10:00 p.m. I was strip searched and taken into Section 13. During my time at Ofer I had seven military court hearings. My parents did not attend the first one because they were not notified but they attended the rest and I was able to speak to them.
 
At my last military court hearing, which was on 6 April 2017, I was sentenced in a plea bargain to three months in prison and fined NIS 3,000. The lawyer convinced my grandfather it was in my best interest to accept the plea bargain and my grandfather agreed. My grandfather told the military judge we did not have any money because this year was a bad year in terms of rainfall and the cattle we raise suffered. The judge told my father he had a whole year to come up with the money. Two days later I was released on 8 April 2017.
 
On the date of my release I was driven to the front gate at Ofer and I went home by myself as our house is not too far away. In prison I studied Arabic and mathematics.